Girl from Mitras ★ A. Arlert

Chapter 2 - I want you to be happy

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Breaking the Wall Maria changed everything. Fear appeared in the eyes of the people, the palace became restless. Now, the officers from the royal guard and the military police were constantly walking everywhere. There were constant meetings.

Wall Maria has fallen. All those, who could escape, moved behind the Wall Rose. This created a shortage of food, unrest began among the inhabitants of the Wall Rose. Refugees were sent to work in the fields and on farms so that food supplies could be replenished faster, but this couldn't fully compensate the lack.

Y/N began to move around the palace more carefully. What happened scared her. She couldn't help but think about the possibility of breaching other walls. The breach of the Wall Maria had little effect on the lives of the people within the Wall Sina, but, nevertheless, the mood among the nobles didn't change for the better. One day, while she was doing one of her research in the library, she overheared a conversation between two nobles talking about the growing appeal of the idea of closing the Wall Sina to the inhabitants of the Wall Maria. «The rich only try to protect their wealth», Y/N thought. She grew up in prosperity, but her father always said that he got all this with great difficulty, because he himself once came to the Capital as an ordinary rural doctor from behind the Wall Maria, and therefore Y/N was always indifferent to wealth. She didn't ask for new toys, beautiful clothes - as long as she had everything she needed, she was content. The only thing - she periodically begged for was books.

Today she found a secluded place in the palace garden under a large tree next to rose bushes. The sun no longer warmed as in summer. Today she wore a dark green jumpsuit with a black turtleneck sweater and black chunky boots. Her unruly hair was gathered into a messy bun at the top of her head. Today, instead of another book, she read a fresh newspaper, which her father bought for her on the way to the palace. On the front page was the headline «Large-scale operation to retake Wall Maria» This headline attracted Y/N's attention.

The article was about the preparation of the operation: there were even small interviews with the Commander-in-chief and some advisers to the King. There were a lot of words. Nothing specific. All this reminded Y/N of Uncle Erwin.

After the fall of Wall Maria, Erwin Smith became commander of the Survey corps, which came as a surprise to many, since usually the commander was changed only when the previous one died, but Commander Sadies apparently couldn't stand it and resigned. Erwin now had more responsibilities and didn't visit Joseph and Y/N at all. Their last meeting took place a couple of days after the fall of the Wall Maria. Then he became a commander. That day, Y/N managed to overhear part of their conversation with her father. She wanted to know what was happening with the refugees. But she heard only a strange conversation about the death of the family of Lord Reiss and about his illegitimate daughter, which wasn't interesting for her, so she decided not to continue listening.

Six months had passed since then, and now Y/N wondered what was going on outside her little world. She sometimes saw Commander Erwin when the scouts arrived at the next royal council. However, he didn't visit them for tea.

Father began to get tired more and more often, he and Y/N almost never went out into the city for walks, didn't go to the river for a picnic on a day off. Joseph increasingly spent his weekends in bed. Y/N knew that her father was no longer young, and he had heart problems due to the fact, that he worked hard. But now, everything was more serious, she felt, but didn't dare to ask her father about it.

***

Several days have passed since the beginning of the operation to return the Wall Maria. All life in the palace seemed to freeze in anticipation of news. And so, one morning, a delegation of scouts arrived at the palace. Y/N was sitting in her father's office in her favorite chair and saw them through the window.